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Connecticut school shooting: 20 children and 6 adults all shot multiple times in Newtown [updated]

Digital First Media staff and wire reports / Mercury News

Posted:
12/15/2012 05:25:44 PM MST

Updated:
12/16/2012 01:29:14 PM MST

A young boy is comforted outside Sandy Hook Elementary School after a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012. A shooter opened fire at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday, killing several people including children, the Hartford Courant newspaper reported. (REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin)

NEWTOWN, Conn. - The 20 children who were shot to death in an elementary school here on Friday morning were all first-graders who had only reached their sixth or seventh birthdays, officials announced Saturday afternoon.

Along with six female teachers, they were all hit more than once, and many appeared to die of wounds from the semiautomatic rifle the perpetrator wielded. If they suffered, the state's tired-looking medical examiner told gathered reporters, it wasn't for very long.

"I've been at this for a third of a century," said Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II. "This probably is the worst I have seen or the worst I know of any of my colleagues have seen."

As this small Connecticut town remained stunned Saturday, teams of detectives continued to go through "every crack and crevice" of the school, where a gunman killed a total of 27 people, including his mother Nancy Lanza, and then himself, a state police spokesman said. Adam Lanza, the suspected killer, shot out a glass entrance to get into the building, and then opened fire in two rooms, a law enforcement source said.

President Barack Obama planned to visit Newtown on Sunday night to meet with families. On Saturday, flowers and candles were piling up at the school's sign near that entrance. Jessica Henderson, who lives in Shelton but attended Newtown High School, teared up after leaving flowers with her boyfriend, Nick Verderame. The scariest part, they said, is that it could have happened anywhere.

"It could have been my little brother," Verderame said. "At that age you don't realize what's going on. This is so real, it's so personal."

On Saturday, authorities released the names of those killed on a black-and-white printed spreadsheet. Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherloch, along with four other women, were the adult victims. Many families of the dead, especially those with dead children, quickly issued statements asking the media for privacy, and still others talked with reporters about their grief for their fallen loved ones.

The shooting Friday began just after 9:30 a.m. in the school about 60 miles northeast of New York City, setting off a nightmarish scene in which students and teachers hid under desks and in closets before being escorted to safety and reunited with their families.

Brenda Lebinski, who was still with her daughter, Sofia Lebinksi, a third-grader at the school, near the school on Friday night, said she is "going to count every blessing" that Sofia survived.

"I'm going to hug her, I'm not going to let her go," Lebinksi said. "I'm going to try to help the families and help the community as much as I can."

A number of reports have changed since the shooting began. In some early confusion, Adam Lanza's brother, Ryan, was initially named as the shooter by unnamed police sources. There were also multiple reports that Nancy Lanza worked in some capacity the school, but doubt was cast on those reports Saturday afternoon and officials told the Associated Press they haven't established a connection between his mother and the school. A law enforcement official speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity said investigators believe Lanza attended the school several years ago but appeared to have no recent connection to it. However, police were investigating whether Lanza was the person who had some kind of altercation with four staffers at the school on Thursday, NBC News reported. Asked about the report, police lieutenant Vance said on Saturday "We never indicated or never reported any indication of any altercation at all," he said.

After the shooting began, a custodian ran through the halls, warning of a gunman on the loose, and someone switched on the intercom, alerting people in the building to the attack - and perhaps saving many lives - by letting them hear the hysteria going on in the school office, a teacher said. Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner or hide in closets as shots echoed through the building.

Authorities gave few details Saturday on exactly how the attack unfolded, saying they are keeping some details "close to our chest" as they continue to investigate the crime scene. But police radio traffic indicated the shooting lasted only a few minutes. There were multiple reports that Lanza, who lived with his mother, woke up and shot her to death. Then, he took her car and drove to the school, and and shot up two classrooms.

Officers arrived instantaneously, immediately entered the school, breaking windows and searching it completely before finding Lanza dead, Vance said. Later, at least three guns were found: a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car. Vance said at a Saturday morning news conference that investigators were tracking the history of each of the weapons that were recovered. There were reports that Lanza might have tried to buy a rifle several days before the shooting, but did not succeed.

A law enforcement official said Adam Lanza was known to have some kind of personality disorder, but he did not have a criminal record. His older brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza of Hoboken, N.J., was being questioned, had been extremely cooperative, and was not believed to have any involvement in the rampage and was not under arrest or in custody, but investigators were still searching his computers and phone records.

When Obama addressed the nation just after 3 p.m. on Friday, he teared up and promised action to prevent such tragedies again but did not say how he would do it.

"I know there is not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do," said Obama, who paused several times during his remarks to compose himself and dab his eyes. "They had their entire lives ahead of them: birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own."

Gov. Dannel Malloy, who apparently was the one to tell some of the parents that their children were dead, gave prepared remarks on Saturday night from his office in Hartford.

"We have all seen tragedies like this play out in other states and countries. Each time, we wondered how something so horrific could occur, and we thanked God that it didn't happen here in Connecticut. But now it has," he said.

Megan Olszewski, a 14-year-old freshman at a nearby high school, was in the auditorium when her school went on lockdown and students hid in between seats. She said they were told there had been a shooting at the elementary school, and when they heard the death toll was 27, "it was horrific."

She said classmates said they wished it happened at the high school instead because they believed they might have been able to stop it.

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